Dundee

The Dundee branch is a former Little Chef on the Eastbound A90 in Dundee.

Opened in 1990/91, this was Little Chef's second site in Dundee with Claverhouse on the A92 the first.

However, planned changes to the road network north of Dundee saw the main route to Aberdeen, via the coast and Claverhouse, turned into a local road with the alternative route north to Aberdeen, via Forfar, upgraded to dual carriageway and becoming themain signed route to Aberdeen. Knowing that this would have a detrimental effect on Claverhouse's trade, Little Chef's owners Forte decided to open a new Dundee site, keeping a Little Chef presence in the city but with the ability to serve the rerouted trunk route. Thus the site on Kingsway West, (then the A972 and now the A90) beside an existing filling station, was chosen. Built in Little Chef's house style of the late 80s/ early 90s with the red brick and double front with pitched roofs, it was a decent sized, easily visible site. Joined in 1997/98 by a Travelodge, this helped to attract further custom to the site. However, the 2000s brought many challenges for the site. The growth of Supermarkets, leisure and retail parks, clustered around grade separated junctions meant that the Little Chef, which only served one side of the road was suddenly competing with other restaurants which were more easily accessible from both carriageways. Worse still, years of underinvestment had caused the Little Chef to look a bit tired and tatty inside which probably didn't help custom.

In 2012, Little Chef's then owners R Capital announced a cull of 67 underperforming branches and this list included Dundee which closed in January of that year. In 2013 it re-opened as an independent cafe called MJ's Diner and Coffee House. Sadly, despite decent reviews, it closed after less than a year and the site became empty until 2015 when it reopened as a Subway.